Section 8 grounds for possession: every ground and the notice it needs

Since 1 May 2026, a landlord in England can recover possession of a rented home only by proving a ground listed in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988. There are around 37 of them. Some are mandatory, meaning the court must order possession once the ground is proved. Others are discretionary, meaning the court orders possession only if it also decides that eviction is reasonable. The ground you choose sets the notice period, the evidence you will need and your odds at a hearing, so choosing it is the single most consequential decision in a possession claim. This article lists every ground, marks which are which, and gives the notice period for each, verified against the government's grounds guidance and possession guidance as at 28 August 2026.

What changed on 1 May 2026

Section 21 no-fault eviction was abolished on 1 May 2026, and with it the only route to possession that required no reason. Every tenancy is now periodic from the outset, so fixed-term tenancies were abolished and there is no term to wait out. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 rewrote Schedule 2 to carry the load: new mandatory grounds for sale and family occupation, a student HMO ground, a higher arrears threshold and longer notice periods across most of the list. The possession rules sit inside the new tenancy landscape under the Act.

The notice itself is now the prescribed Form 3A. Choosing the ground and serving the notice are separate tasks, and this article covers the first. Once you have settled on the ground, how to serve a valid Section 8 notice covers the second.

Mandatory and discretionary grounds: the distinction that decides your claim

On a mandatory ground, the court must make a possession order once the landlord proves the ground and no defence succeeds. On a discretionary ground, proving the ground is only half the job: the judge must also find that possession is reasonable in all the circumstances, and can suspend the order on terms instead of granting it outright. The definitional reference for mandatory and discretionary grounds sits in our dictionary, and the bare definition of a ground for possession sits alongside it.

The practical consequence is about certainty. A mandatory ground with clean evidence is close to a foregone conclusion. A discretionary ground with thin evidence produces a suspended order, an adjournment or a dismissal. You may rely on more than one ground in a single notice, and pairing a mandatory ground with its discretionary neighbours is standard practice: arrears claims are routinely pleaded on Grounds 8, 10 and 11 together, so that a tenant who pays down below the Ground 8 threshold before the hearing does not defeat the whole claim.

Mandatory grounds for possession

The court must order possession when a mandatory ground is proved. Notice periods are those in the government's grounds guidance as at 28 August 2026.

Two numbers are missing from that list and their absence is deliberate. Old Ground 3, the out-of-season holiday let ground, and old Ground 16, employment-related accommodation, no longer appear. Ground 16 was recast as mandatory Ground 5C.

Ground 1: occupation by the landlord or family

Ground 1 applies where the landlord or a close family member will move into the property as their only or principal home. The family members covered are broadly drawn: spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner, and parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild, with half-blood relations treated as whole-blood. Notice is four months. The ground cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy, though you may serve notice during that period provided the notice does not expire before the 12 months are up. You or your family member can only move in after the tenant has left.

Ground 1A: sale of the property

Ground 1A lets a landlord recover the property in order to sell it, and it is the closest replacement for the old no-fault route out of the sector. Notice is four months and the same 12-month protected period applies. One exclusion catches people out: Ground 1A cannot be used where the tenant holds an assured tenancy created before 1 May 2026 that was not an assured shorthold, the tenancies sometimes called assured lifetime tenancies.

The court will look for a settled intention to sell rather than an aspiration, and it will look for it on paper. An estate agent instruction, a valuation or correspondence with a conveyancer dated before the notice does that work. Anyone considering this route should read our guide to selling a tenanted property first, because the restricted re-letting rules below carry real financial exposure if the sale falls through.

Ground 8: serious rent arrears

Ground 8 requires at least three months' unpaid rent where rent is paid monthly, or thirteen weeks where it is paid weekly or fortnightly. The Renters' Rights Act raised that threshold from two months. The arrears must reach the level both on the day the notice is served and on the day of the hearing, so a tenant who pays down below the threshold before court defeats the ground outright. Where the shortfall exists because a Universal Credit payment has not reached the tenant, that amount is left out of the calculation. Notice is four weeks.

Across the tenancies August supports, the Ground 8 claims that come apart in court rarely fail on the law. They fail because the landlord cannot show the threshold was met on both dates to the standard a judge wants. A ledger reconstructed from bank statements after the fact invites argument about which payment covered which month. A running record does not. That is the case for keeping a dated record of every rent payment from the first day of the tenancy rather than assembling one when a claim is already in prospect. The full arrears recovery process and the court timelines for an arrears claim are worth reading alongside this ground.

Ground 7A: severe antisocial or criminal behaviour

Ground 7A applies where the tenant, a member of their household or a visitor has been convicted of a serious offence, has breached an order made to prevent antisocial behaviour, or where the premises have been subject to a closure order preventing access for more than 48 hours. There is no minimum notice period, so you can apply to the court immediately after giving notice, although the court cannot make a possession order until 14 days have passed from the date notice was given.

Ground 7B: no right to rent

Ground 7B applies where the Secretary of State has notified you that a tenant or occupier has no right to rent under immigration law. Notice is two weeks. This is a distinct ground from the antisocial behaviour grounds, and the historic numbering leads several commercial guides to conflate the two.

Ground 4A: student HMOs

Ground 4A applies to an HMO let to full-time students where the property is needed for a new group of students in line with the academic year, with possession falling between 1 June and 30 September. Notice is four months. Two conditions attach: you must have given the tenant prior notice at the start of the tenancy that you might use the ground, and you cannot use it where the tenancy was agreed more than six months before it began. Landlords letting student HMOs on long lead times should check that second condition before relying on this ground.

Discretionary grounds for possession

On a discretionary ground the court weighs reasonableness as well as evidence, so context and documentation carry more weight than they do on a mandatory ground.

Three of these are misread often enough to be worth naming. Ground 11 covers persistent late payment and needs a documented pattern rather than a single late month, which makes it the correct pairing where a tenant repeatedly falls into and clears arrears. Ground 14 has no minimum notice period, like Ground 7A, but unlike Ground 7A it is discretionary, so the judge still weighs reasonableness. Ground 17, the false statement ground relied on after fraudulent references, is discretionary rather than mandatory, so proving the false statement does not by itself secure possession.

Is there a Ground 8A for repeated arrears?

No. A mandatory Ground 8A for repeated or intermittent arrears appeared in the earlier Renters (Reform) Bill, but it was not enacted and it does not exist in the law that took effect on 1 May 2026. The government's grounds guidance runs directly from Ground 8 to Ground 9, and Form 3A contains no Ground 8A. Where a tenant repeatedly falls into and clears arrears, the route is discretionary Ground 11, usually pleaded alongside Grounds 8 and 10. Several commercial guides still list Ground 8A, so check any source against the government grounds guidance before relying on it.

The deposit rule that blocks most grounds

The court will not make a possession order on most grounds unless one of three things is true: the deposit is protected in an approved scheme with the scheme's requirements met and the prescribed information given to the tenant; or the deposit has been returned in full, or with deductions the tenant agreed; or the tenant has challenged compliance in court and the case has been decided, settled or withdrawn.

There is an exception that is widely misreported: the deposit rules do not apply to Ground 7A or Ground 14, the two antisocial behaviour grounds. A landlord who has failed to protect a deposit is not therefore barred from every route to possession, though they remain exposed to the separate penalties for non-protection. It is also unlawful to take a deposit in any form other than money, and anything taken in place of money must be returned before possession can be obtained on any ground.

Returning the deposit in full is the practical fix where protection was missed and the claim rests on a ground the rules do apply to. It costs the deposit and it removes the bar.

The grounds you cannot use unless you flagged them at the start

Some grounds require prior notice, meaning you must have told the tenant at the start of the tenancy that you might rely on them. Grounds 2ZA and 2ZB, where the landlord's own superior lease is ending, Ground 4A for student HMOs, and Ground 5C where a tenant's employment with the landlord ends all fall into this category. The full list sits in the government's grounds guidance and should be checked before a tenancy begins rather than when possession is needed, because prior notice cannot be given retrospectively.

Grounds 1 and 1A do not require prior notice, despite several widely read guides stating that they do. That distinction matters, because a landlord who believes Ground 1 is unavailable to them may reach for Ground 1A when occupation, not sale, is the honest reason.

The 12-month protected period and restricted re-letting

Grounds 1 and 1A carry two constraints that generate more enforcement risk than the rest of Schedule 2 combined. Neither ground is available during the first 12 months of a tenancy, so the possession date in the notice must fall after that year has run, which sometimes means giving more than four months' notice. And once possession has been obtained on either ground, a 12-month restricted period runs during which the landlord must not re-let the property, licence it, or market it for letting, whether directly or through an agent. Short-term letting platforms are caught. The only substantial exception is a letting to a qualifying family member.

The penalties are real. Under the government's enforcement guidance, a local authority can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution where a landlord re-lets or re-markets during the restricted period, or where a landlord knowingly or recklessly uses a ground they know a court would not grant, and the tenant leaves within four months without a possession order being made. A tenant or local authority can separately apply for a rent repayment orderof up to two years' rent. Letting agents and other relevant persons can be penalised in their own right for the same breach.

The practical rule follows from the penalty structure rather than from any moral argument: use Ground 1A only where a sale is genuinely intended and evidenced, and use Ground 1 where occupation is the real reason.

The evidence each ground needs

Contested claims turn on documentation, and the evidence is worth assembling before the notice goes out rather than after the hearing date is set.

• Arrears grounds (8, 10, 11) need a complete rent ledger showing the threshold met at both the service and hearing dates, and for Ground 11 a demonstrable pattern of late payment.

• Ground 1A needs proof of a settled intention to sell predating the notice: agent instruction, valuation, conveyancing correspondence.

• Ground 1 needs evidence that the named family member genuinely intends to occupy.

• Breach and deterioration grounds (12, 13, 15) need a baseline, which is what a thorough check-in record and dated inspection notes provide. Without a starting condition there is nothing against which to show deterioration.

• Antisocial behaviour grounds (7A, 14) need incident logs with dates, witness statements and, where they exist, police reference numbers or the conviction record.

• Ground 17 needs the application or reference containing the false statement, alongside proof of the true position.

For any discretionary ground, thin evidence tends to produce a suspended order rather than possession. The landlords who fare best keep the whole file in one place rather than across email, paper and memory, which is the argument for keeping notices, inspection reports and correspondence together so that a claim can be produced as a single dated record if a tenancy ever reaches that point.

What happens after you serve notice

Serving a valid notice starts the clock. It does not end the tenancy. If the tenant has not left when the notice expires, you apply to the county court for a possession order, and only an order enforced by county court bailiffs gives the legal right to recover the property.

Where the claim rests solely on rent arrears, you can use the Possession Claim Online service, which requires payment records covering up to two years. Any other ground goes in on the paper forms N5 and N119, with a certificate of service on form N215. The fee is £415, raised from £404 on 13 July 2026. A tenant has 14 days from service to file a defence, and you should send your case documents to the court at least 14 days before the hearing.

If the court grants an outright order on a mandatory ground, the tenant must usually leave within 14 days, though a judge may allow up to six weeks where leaving earlier would cause extreme hardship, and may allow longer on a discretionary ground. If the tenant stays, you apply for a warrant of possession on form N325, at a cost of £148. The warrant remains available for six years from the date of the order, and the court gives the tenant at least 14 days' notice of the eviction appointment. Even a straightforward arrears case now runs to several months from notice to enforcement, because the accelerated procedure that accompanied Section 21 no longer exists. How long eviction takes in 2026 sets that timeline out in full.

Attempting to remove a tenant without following this process is illegal eviction, which carries criminal liability and a civil penalty of up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution.

Frequently asked questions

On what grounds can a landlord evict a tenant in 2026?

Only on a ground listed in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988, served on Form 3A. The grounds a private landlord uses most often are Ground 1 (moving in), Ground 1A (selling), Ground 8 (three months' arrears), Grounds 10 and 11 (lesser and persistent arrears), Ground 12 (breach of tenancy) and Grounds 7A and 14 (antisocial behaviour). Section 21 no-fault eviction was abolished on 1 May 2026, so there is no route to possession without a ground.

How much rent arrears are needed before a landlord can use Ground 8?

Three months' unpaid rent where rent is paid monthly, or thirteen weeks where it is paid weekly or fortnightly. The arrears must meet that level both when the notice is served and at the hearing, so a tenant who pays down below the threshold before court defeats the ground. Arrears caused by a delayed Universal Credit payment are excluded from the calculation.

Can a landlord evict a tenant if the deposit was never protected?

Not on most grounds. The court will not make a possession order unless the deposit was protected with the prescribed information given, or has been returned, or a tenant challenge has been resolved. Grounds 7A and 14, the antisocial behaviour grounds, are the exception and are not subject to the deposit rules. Returning the deposit in full removes the bar for the other grounds, though it does not cure the separate penalties for failing to protect it.

Is Ground 8A a real ground for possession?

No. It was proposed in the earlier Renters (Reform) Bill and was not enacted. Repeated arrears are dealt with under discretionary Ground 11, normally pleaded alongside Grounds 8 and 10. If you want to act on the current rules with the rent records already in place to prove them, you can start for free.

Sources: Grounds for possession: guidance for landlords and letting agents (GOV.UK, updated 1 May 2026); Repossessing your privately rented property after 1 May 2026 (GOV.UK, updated 13 July 2026); Enforcement measures for landlords: Renters' Rights Act 2025 (GOV.UK); Housing Act 1988, Schedule 2. Figures verified 28 August 2026.

Disclosure: this article is for general information and is not legal advice. Landlords facing possession proceedings should take independent legal advice on their specific circumstances.